Beautiful Crime
by Candy-Vegetto
Summary: Quirkless Hero-support engineer by day, demonic vigilante by night. That's the Midoriya Izuku here. AU.
1. Settings

_"Sightings of the Grinning Green Demon have increased in the Mafuba district for the last week. It is now advised to stay at home and keep your doors locked. If you need to get out of the house at this time, please steer away from dark alleyways and always stay in the lights..."_

"You hearing this shit?" the man at the counter asked the bartender, who was wiping a glass cup with a rag. "Can you believe that there are even _warnings_ for this guy? I'm pretty sure _I_ can beat the shit outta that " _demon_ "."

"Yeah. I believe you," the bartender replied mockingly, rolling his eyes.

"Well, lemme tell you something about my Quirk, ya see..." the red-faced man trailed off into slurs that the bartender was unable to decipher.

"You're drunk," he stated, before shooing him off. "Get outta here. And don't get into any trouble."

"Yessir," the man saluted and limped out of the bar. Getting out onto the cold streets of Mafuba, the man immediately walked to the direction of his home. He was drunk, his balance was off and his vision was swimming, but his walking was in control. He was focused on going back home, only from the sheer cowardice he had. Being drunk freed him from it, but his character would always come back to being scared.

A scream erupted from the dark corner he was about to pass.

The man blinked, stopping completely. The first thing that entered his mind was taking out his phone, which he did, and inputting the number of the emergency hotline. However, he paused, his curiosity had risen from the shriek and half-forgetting what to do, which overpowered his fear. He stumbled towards the corner and peeked into the alleyway, to see what was wrong.

A group of men had cornered a poor woman and pinned her to a wall with force, even covering her mouth with a firm grip to lessen the noise. The scared drunk panicked from the sight of a sexual crime happening right in front of him. It got him out of his drunk state and put him on the spot. He had always heard these kind of stories but never would he have thought that he would witness it. He firmly clasped onto his phone like it was his lifeline and pressed call.

THUMP.

The drunk winced. It sounded as if the woman had been shoved harshly against the brick wall. He was shaking, listening to the buggy hotline service and staring at the phone. He had to check up on the situation. He was the only one who could relay the information to the police. He was the only one who can. A woman's life was in danger. He had to take a peek.

He looked back. His jaw dropped.

From the shadows, a humanoid figure slowly rose from the ground. Its appearance matched descriptions of the "Grinning Green Demon" from all over the News.

It was the demon he had been smack-talking a while ago.

The texture of its mossy green skin was horrendous to look at. It was as if it was part reptilian from some parts of its body having scales. The blood running down its heavy, black fists chilled him to the spine. There was stitching all over its body, like it had to repair itself countless times with different body parts of other demons, leading him to believe it was a type of Frankenstein's monster. Word of it looking like the devil was true, as there were two large horns protruding out of its head. There seemed to be some white paint lines over its body, making it look like an archaic war demon. But most disturbingly, was how it had no eyes, but instead, a large, wide cheshire grin that literally spanned ear-to-ear.

"It's that fucking _demon_..." one of the offenders whispered, but it could've been a scream with how noiseless the alleyway was.

The devil took no time to close the gap between them and dart out its inhuman foot into one of the crook's knee, breaking it indefinitely. The way it bent made the spectator feel second-hand pain in his own leg. The first victim screamed, but was silenced once the demon's heavy fist slammed into the side of his face, sending him into a wall and knocking him out.

Then, one of them tried to run. Another bravely punched it in the head.

The demon grunted when taking the punch, before retaliating with his own. The brave attacker was socked in the face before being hauled at the runner. The two tumbled onto the ground, skidding across pavement, all while the grinning demon went for the last one.

This one tried to stand his ground and activated his Quirk beforehand, hands bursting into flames. The fire-Quirk user threw a couple of jabs at the demon, who ducked under them and fired back with an uppercut. The man's back slammed against the wall and rebounded off of it, using it to his advantage to get more inertia to his flaming punch. The demon narrowly evaded the strike and brought up a fist, which crashed into his gut. The man doubled over in pain, grasping his waist and falling over.

The demon sensed movement behind him and ducked under a blade. A knife-wielder went for more slashes, which the demon backed away from. It kicked his shin, causing him to topple over and fall, before it spun and kicked him into a wall.

Hot-hands got up, breathing ragged and movement slowed. He tried to save what was left of his pride by shooting a fireball, which the demon dodged by kicking against a wall to gain height. Using its fall to its advantage, it clasped its bulky hands together and went for an overhead smash. The man tried to block, but it was in vain for he was too slow, as his flaming hands touched the demon by its stomach. The man dropped, head smashing against the floor. The demon grunted at its burned skin, patting the damage off.

One of the men on the floor groaned, starting to sit up.

The poor bastard had his hand crushed from the demon's giant foot and then several heavy stomps to the chest with the other, and all there could be heard were the crunches of his ribs.

The demon took a step back, shoulders rising up and down, like it was catching its breath. It doubled over against a wall, wrapping an arm around its torso. The woman snapped out of shock and ran from the scene, shouting when she saw the spectator and went the other way. The man watched as the devil drag itself away from the scene, stepping onto one of the offenders' shoulder intentionally.

When he was far enough away, the previously drunk man gasped for air, before covering his mouth and muttering, "Holy shit."

The grinning demon stopped in its tracks. The man who couldn't keep his mouth shut felt his legs freeze on the spot. It turned its head sideways, looking back at the man.

He was wrong the first time he saw it. It _did_ have eyes. They were just obscured from the lighting. All he could see were the whites of it, but he knew its eyes were pointing to him.

The thing was still smiling, in its inhuman way. It bared its teeth in full view, with the corners of its lips tugged upwards. Its grin never let up during the whole fiasco, even when taking hits or burns, as if it was a permanent look on its face.

For a moment, nothing happened. The nightly wind reached their ears and made one of them shake.

And then it turned away.

Then the monstrous being ran towards the walls and leaped, jumping from wall to wall until it reached the top, where it vanished into the rooftops.

* * *

The familiar ring of an alarm clock blared through a partially sunlit bedroom, causing the only person in it to begrudgingly open their eyes. The rightful owner of the torture machine groaned as the sound brought up cases of past trauma, which was, for the most part, the repeated nightmare of prying him away from sleep before also taking away his faithful bed.

Midoriya Izuku could ignore the obligation to get out of bed early and sleep in for the rest of the day. That is, if he wanted to lose his income and credibility. It may be a very tempting offer, but Izuku knew he should say no to that and get the hell up. But what's this? The pillows were getting softer and comfier with each second he laid there.

 _No... No. Bad Izuku. Get up._

And with incredible willpower rivaling that of Heroes, he found himself crawling out of his sheets and stumbling onto the floor. He was met with a dirty floor consisting of used clothes, empty snack wrappers and plastic bottles. He groaned as he felt a particularly sticky chocolate wrapper clinging to his face. The alarm was still blaring.

After a few minutes with his face in trash, he finally got up and turned off the alarm on his phone. His body ached tremendously, his abdomen in particular feeling stung. He was far too familiar with that pain. The grown man did his stretches against his desk, which was a pure utopia compared to his floor.

His room wasn't bad. It was originally neat and mathematically perfect when he set it up. It was just worn down with the trash Izuku hadn't been able to throw away because of "time constraints". He had Hero memorabilia from his younger years (and present day) hung around on wall shelves and an actual shelf filled with them. His desk was the one storing work files and equipment, and even that had All-Might toys posing heroically. However, his one treasure was hung overhead. All-Might's signature, framed, and the burned notebook that held it.

"You can do better than this..." Midoriya mumbled, surveying his dirty floor. He sweeped a part of the trash to the corner with his leg as he walked out of the room. His body was too tired to deal with it. "...in the future. But, the clothes will have to be taken soon."

He got out to his fridge for breakfast options. He snagged an apple, which wasn't heavy in his hand, but he couldn't stop his entire arm from shaking. He put the apple down and backed away, as if the fruit had been the one causing his shakes. He held his arm out for a moment, ignoring the colored marks on his skin, but it only took seconds for his muscles to tremble again.

 _Alright. I'm already in shaking condition. Not good._ He thought, scratching his cheek. _It'll wear off. Sometime. Just power through it._

He was all out of energy and natural painkiller, like adrenaline. But that was what coffee was for, you would say. But for Izuku, coffee was for the weak. All he needed was a balanced breakfast, a nice shower and some All-Might motivational videos.

Going back to his room, he took a crunch out of the washed apple and looked up some motivational All-Might speeches on his laptop. When he finally got one, he clicked on it.

It wasn't a speech, but he clicked on the familiar video. The scene started of fire ravaging the place, and darkness encompassing the debris. The muttering of people describing the tragedy. Then people gasping at a hulking figure stepping out of the fire, who was laughing as he carried ten people. _"It's fine now. Why?"_

Midoriya mimicked the legendary Hero, despite his mouth being full. "Because I am here."

* * *

"Yo, Midoriya! You're late!"

Izuku's face went red as he came face to face with his boss. He didn't expect her to confront him, since she was always cooped up in her basement workstation (which was huge, by the way, this was a building spanning a block), tinkering away at high-grade products. But it seemed that she finally decided to get some fresh air on the day he felt like spending more time out. Usually, he'd come in, repair some equipment from Heroes and never see a glimpse of pink hair and goggles.

Midoriya bowed his head, voice shaking. "I-I'm sorry, ma'am. I got held up."

"I could sense that answer from a hundred mile radius," his boss retorted, narrowing her yellow reticle eyes on Midoriya, who was fidgeting withhis hands. She huffed, wrangling her arm around his neck and leading him on to his workshop space. "Don't worry, kid. It was just five minutes. No big deal." Midoriya wanted to say something about how they were almost the same age, but didn't press on it. His boss sighed, "Did you even get any sleep? Your eyes are red."

"U-Um, yeah. Busy night. Didn't get much sleep, so... y-yeah," Midoriya stammered as his boss let go of him upon entering his workstation.

He, much like everyone else working in the building, had a considerable amount of space with workbenches, the standard high-tech computer, drawers and shelves full of material, a couple of mannequins, and a human-sized 3D printer. He had personalized his space to have a better chair, since that was where his boss decided to cut corners, and some more Hero memorabilia... that he swore he used as reference. Another notable example of his boss cutting corners was that there wasn't a door to their spaces, and they only had three walls to keep themselves apart, so they had a curtain as their entrance and fourth wall.

His boss patted him on the shoulder and straightened his green jacket. "Sleep more. It keeps you healthy. Unlike _yours truly_ , a bad example extraordinaire," she advised, flashing a confident smile at the end. She dropped it almost immediately and rubbed her jaw as she walked away, most probably back to her basement workstation. "Man, smiling _hurts_."

Midoriya watched her leave, before pulling his All-Might themed curtains closed and essentially locking himself from the world.

 _Alright, what do we have to do?_

Going through his notes of requests for the day, he decided he could spare some time for something of his personal interests.

Midoriya fished out a file from his shelf and booted up his computer. He took a pair of safety goggles while opening up a drawer for a pair of thick gloves, and a flamethrower.

"This is gonna be a _long_ day..." he muttered as he got out schematics of fireproof material for a light bodysuit.

* * *

 **A/N: I wrote this on a whim because of the cover.**

 **Someone save this fic from its horrible title. I can't write for shit. My writing powers are being drained from me with every passing day being spent not writing and I needed to write something. So here... a fic with a document aptly titled "DekuDevil", just in case you didn't know where everything came from.**

 **This is just your average Quirkless, vigilante Izuku AU. And a bit of aging up as well. Because I thought that would be the icing on the cake.**

 **I like the Daredevil Netflix series and Midoriya Izuku a lot, okay.**

 **EDIT: I just made Midoriya go through a job change. And what? He had an OC friend? Well, he doesn't now. This seemed better to me. Don't notice that there isn't a Chapter 2 yet.**


	2. Dreams

**A/N: I edited the first chapter. Changed up a bunch of stuff. Like Izuku's job and now he doesn't have a companion. Yeah, small stuff. Also, thinking of just doing small bits for chapters now, since that's all I can manage.**

* * *

 _Midoriya felt like dying._

 _He had just been shot—Stabbed—Broken. Limping on the only limb usable. He couldn't feel his arms. His hands were shaking. Smoke clouded his vision. He felt colder with each passing second, but he knew he was burning up. He was going to die. He just knew it._

 _He didn't have a Quirk. Only Heroes with Quirks are likely to sacrifice and live through it. He's Quirkless. He'll sacrifice and he won't survive it. Why? Because that's how the world works. The world isn't fair. The strong live on, while the weak perish. And what does Midoriya Izuku do about it? He fantasizes, and he fools himself into becoming something he isn't._

 _Why did he have to go through with this? He could've pursued any other job on the planet, and yet, he wanted to be the one to bleed for the sake of others._

 _Well, he's bleeding now._

 _It did not feel good. It was not cool. It does not_ look _cool. He wasn't going to make it. He could feel his insides gushing out. The substance keeping him alive was leaking out of him, and he could see darkness coming. Blacking out._

 _What had he been fighting?_ Who _had he been fighting?_

 _Midoriya told himself it was a Villain._

 _The whole world told him not._

 _They told him that_ he _was the Villain, and his enemy was the_ Hero _._

 _A hero with a smile on his face, blond hair..._

 _...red eyes..._

 _Izuku stopped limping. His emerald eyes were met with crimson orbs, a body in shadows towering over him. Smoking arms. Pointed at him. Yellow build-up. His vision blacked out after that, not because he passed on, but because he was scared. His heart caught up in his throat. His hands charred. Tears shed. Old wounds opened up._

 _The Demon bled._

* * *

Midoriya woke up seeing stars.

He was lying on a cold floor, peering up at the night sky. It was bright, articially bright. Several pains crept up his skin, and injected themselves into his muscles. He was sweating, and it clung on to the fabric. He was cold everywhere. His hands and feet were heavy. He couldn't breathe well.

 _I'm in the suit,_ was his first thought. And then his second was: _I slept in the suit._

The Demon sprung up instantly, finding itself bruised in eight different places and on a rooftop. It surveyed the area, high on a rush of blood, hoping nobody saw it. It tore its face off, letting air onto its pale skin. Midoriya's face was wet. He needed air. His body was in chaos. He could taste puke in his mouth. He dropped against the ledge when the energy left him. His eyes met with the billboard on the same rooftop he was agonizing over.

Big smile. Blond hair.

Red eyes.

 _Kacha..._

Midoriya didn't finish the name.

The Demon instinctively held its arms in front of itself. Heat. Pain. Shock. Force.

Memories.

It calmed itself, letting its arms fall uselessly to its sides.

 _I haven't seen him in awhile. Years actually._

Midoriya noticed the nuclear Hero advertising a product. Some merchandising from the so-called Number One Hero.

 _Then why... Am I still scared of you?_

Because he can still hurt the Demon. And he's still hurting Midoriya Izuku.

The demon patted its burned cloth.

 _I'm gonna have to finish that heat resistant material soon._

And Midoriya fantasized safety again.


End file.
